Refuse conveyor for trash collectors or trucks



United States Patent US. Cl. 198-174 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREIn a garbage or refuse disposal truck having an upwardly inclined trashchute, and drive and idler rollers mounted; respectively, at opposite.ends, of the chute, an endless conveyor is mounted to travel just abovethe chute. The conveyor comprises a" plurality of .spaced, parallel,transverse blades or pushers, which are secured adjacent opposite endsthereof to'two; spaced, endless belts, so that the blades on the lower"reach of the conveyor have wiping engagement with the face of the chuteto push trash upwardly over the upper end of the chute. The two lrollersare resilient, and are positioned frictionally to engage the midpointsonlyof the blades, so that the latter can pivot about their midpoints topass over an obstruction on the face of the chute.

This invention relates to a device in garbage collectors or truckshaving an elevator in the form of an inclined chute along the bottom ofwhich pushers operating on an endless path scrape garbage upwards fromthe lower end of said chute.

Hitherto known garbage collectors of this type have been to severalinconveniences, among which the most important may be that the endlesschains used in these collectors and which run over sprocket or toothedwheels easily may get out of order if objects accompanying the garbage,such as stones, wood pieces or similar objects are jammed between thechains and the Wheels. In severe cases this jamming may result inbreakage of the chain causing expensive waste of time and considerablecosts for reconditioning. If one tooth is out of the chain the resultwill be that the pushers take an inclined position relative to thedirection of movement which in turn, as is easily-understood, results inthe garbage being pushed to one side of the chute with consequentfunctional troubles.

One main object of the invention is to remove said inconveniences byproviding a device in'which the pushers on both sides of, and preferablysymmetrically in relation to, the longitudinal center line of the'pathof movement are interconnected by endless freely running belts andarranged so that at the turning 1 stations of the path they engage witha central portion frictionally with turning rollers located at saidstations.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparentfrom the following==description, considered in connection with theaccompanying drawing, which is a perspective view of an embodiment ofthe invention and which forms part of the specification.

Referring to the drawing, reference numeral denotes a chute forming partof an elevatorand having a flat bottom 12 and upwardly projectinglateral edge portions 14. The chute is intended to be mounted ininclined position on a garbage collector (not shown) of suitable type,for example, a collector truck intended for street cleaning, the chutebeing mounted so that its lower end is positioned in front of a rollerbrush, which forms part of the garbage collector (not shown) and whichfeeds the garbage onto the bottom 12 of the chute. The other end 3,471,003 Patented Oct. 7, 1969 "ice of said chute is then in a suitableposition over a container for collecting the garbage, which containeralso constituting a part of the garbage collector, is not shown here.

The garbage is conveyed upwardly along the chute by a series of pushers16 mounted at suitable interspaces so as to scrape along the bottom ofthe chute from its lower end in the upward direction. The pushers moveon an endless path and in the embodiment shown they consist of L-ironsone flange of each of which carries a longitudinal, band-like strip 18,which may be, for example, rubber and has an edge portion projectingover the flange to constitute that part of the pushers 16, which scrapesalong the bottom 12 of the chute.

The pushers 16 are retained on the aforementioned endless path by beingmounted in their operative position in parallel relationship to oneanother and transversally to the longitudinal direction of the chute onendless belts 20 which are disposed at a suitable spacing from oneanother in parallel relationship and mounted symmetrically in relationto the centers of the transversally extending pushers. In theillustrated embodiment there are two such belts 20 which may be V-beltsand which are located on either side of said centers and withsubstantially the same spacing therefrom.

The endless conveyor formed in the manner described hereinbefore passesin conventional manner about two turning rollers 22 located at apredetermined spacing from one another and mounted each at one end of asupport generally denoted by 24. One of said rollers constitutes in thepresented embodiment the driving roller for the conveyor device, asshall be described more in detail below. The engagement between theconveyor device and the turning rollers is effected by a central portionof each pusher 16, the belts 20 thus being entirely free from drivingengagement. The distribution of the pushers over the endless path issuitably made so that always at least three of the pushers are incontact with each of the turning rollers. Further the length of theconveyor and the diameter of the turning rollers are adjusted inrelation to one another in such a manner that the pushers do not alwaysengage the same places on the turning rollers whereby a more equaldistribution of the wear of said rollers is gained.

In order to obtain good guiding and sufiiciently strong frictionalengagement between the pushers 16 and the turning rollers 22 saidpushers are provided with projections 26 engaging the lateral edgeportions of the turning rollers during their passage over said rollers.In the illustrated embodiment the projections 26 are formed as folds onsheet strips 28 which are secured to the free flanges 30 of the pushersand which in addition on both sides of the folds engaging the turningrollers are provided with other folds 32 overlapping and forming foldsfor the V-belts 20.

The support 24 mentioned above is suitably formed of two tubes 34arranged in telescopic relationship, i.e. the one tube is displaceablewithin the other and setable relative to the other by means of a screwmember indicated at 36. These tubes support at their free ends U-shapedyokes 38 in which the turning rollers 22 are mounted on pivot 40. As isseen from the drawing, one of the tubes 34 carries tube-shaped lateralpieces 42 which at their free ends are combined with lateral plates 44intended to be secured onto suitable parts of the frame of the garbagecollector. Adjacent the upper driving turning roller 22 the support 24supports a gear box 46, the output shaft of which is a prolongation ofthe pivot 40 of the upper turning roller and the input shaft of which isconnected with a hydraulic motor 48 the inlet 'and outlet of which foroil under pressure is indicated at 50.

As is easily understood, the telescopic arrangement of the support tubes34 permits adjusting the spacing between the turning rollers so as toobtain suitable frictional engagement between the driving turning roller22 and the pushers 60. This engagement can also, if desired, be adjustedby inflatable ring members 52 mounted on the peripheries of the rollers22. These ring members improve also considerably the advantage obtainedWith the device according to the invention, in that larger objectspossibly following with the garbage, such as larger stones, wood piecesand similar obstruction articles, do not cause any damage if they arejammed between the pushers and the ring members. This effect of saidring members can also be obtained by making the ring members massiveinstead of inflatable but of some suitable resilient material.

What I claim is:

1. In a mechanical garbage and trash collector,

an upwardly inclined chute,

a pair of longitudinally spaced rollers mounted above said chute torotate in a common plane on spaced parallel axes,

an endless, flexible conveyor mounted above said chute to travel aroundsaid rollers,

means for driving one of said rollers,

said conveyor comprising a belt and a plurality of elongate pusherssecured to said belt in spaced, parallel relation to one another andsaid axes longitudinally of the belt to project from said belt and tohave limited pivotal movement transverse to said plane, and positionedto engage said rollers thereby to effect drive of said conveyor,

said rollers having resilient contact with approximately the midportions only of said pushers, whereby substantial portions of eachpusher project beyond opposite ends of the rollers, and

said pushers being disposed so that as the lower reach of the conveyorpasses in an upward direction above said chute, the pushers scrapematerial on the chute to the upper end of the chute.

2. In a mechanical garbage and trash collector,

an upwardly inclined chute,

a pair of longitudinally spaced rollers mounted above said chute torotate on spaced parallel axes,

means for driving one of said rollers,

an endless conveyor mounted above said chute to travel around saidrollers, and comprising two parallel endless flexible belts spacedlaterally from one another, and

a plurality of pushers secured to said belts in spaced 4. relation toone another longitudinally of the belts to project from said belts andpositioned to engage said rollers thereby to effect drive of saidconveyor,

said rollers having resilient contact with said pushers intermediate theends of said pushers,

said pushers being disposed so that as the lower reach of the conveyorpasses in an upward direction above said chute, the pushers scrapematerial on the chute to the upper end of the chute,

said two parallel endless flexible belts interconnecting said pushers,and

each pusher being symmetrically disposed with reference to thelongitudinal centerline of said conveyor.

3. In a mechanical garbage and trash collector,

an upwardly inclined chute,

a pair of longitudinally spaced rollers mounted above said chute torotate on spaced parallel axes,

an endless conveyor mounted above said chute to travel around saidrollers,

means for driving one of said rollers,

a plurality of pushers secured to said conveyor in spaced relation toone another longitudinally of the conveyor to project from said conveyorand positioned to engage said rollers thereby to elfect drive of saidconveyor,

said rollers having resilient contact with said pushers intermediate theends of said pushers,

said pushers being disposed so that as the lower reach of the conveyorpasses above said chute, the pushers scrape material ori the chute tothe upper end of the chute,

each pusher having a bracket secured thereto, and

each of said brackets having intermediate its ends a projectionpositioned to have frictional engagement with a side of each rollerduring the movement of said conveyor, whereby said projections operateto guide said pushers over said rollers, and to increase the surfacecontact between said rollers and pushers during the movement of saidconveyor.

6/1957 Remer 198-174 12/1957 Hapman l98--168 RICHARD E. AEGERTER,Primary Examiner

